1 Esiku limwe konima Simson okwa yi, a ka talele po omukadhi pethimbo lyeteyo lyosiima nokwa faalele onkombwena. Okwa ti kuhemweno: “Onda hala okuya kumukadhandje.”
Ihe hemweno ine mu pitika. 2 Okwa ti kuSimson: “Onda li ndi shi, owe mu tondo nokuli, nomolwashoka onde mu gandja koshinkumbi shoye. Ihe opu na omumwayina ondenge ye omwaanawa e mu vule. Oye kutha po, a ninge gwoye.”
3 Simson okwa ti: “Ngashingeyi kandi na we mbedhi, ngele tandi geele Aafilisti.” 4 Okwa yi nokuli e ta kwata oombandje omathele gatatu. Okwa kutha oombandje oombali noombali, nomishila dhadho okwe dhi mangele kumwe e ta tula ko onyeka. 5 Nena okwe dhi tidhile momapya gAafilisti e dhi tomeka omulilo. Pamukalo nguka okwa fike po oondudhi adhihe niilya wo mbyoka inaayi teywa manga, osho wo iitsambe yomiviinu nooholivi ndhoka hadhi zi omagadhi. 6 Aafilisti sho ya pulathana kutya olye a ningi ngeyi, oya koneke kutya nani oSimson e shi ningi, oshoka hemweno gwokuTimna okwa gandja omufuko gwe koshinkumbi she. Aafilisti oya yi e taa fike po omufuko negumbo lyahe.
7 Simson okwe ya lombwele. “Omwa ningi nayi! Oshili ite mwena, manga inaandi mu galulila ondjambi yeni!” 8 Okwe ya mbolokotele e te ya vunyagula, noyendji yomuyo okwe ya dhipaga. Nena okwa yi e ta kala mekololo lyemanya puEtam.
Simson ta sindi Aafilisti
9 Aafilisti oye ya noya yungu ontanda muJuda e taa matukile oshilando Lehi. 10 Aajuda oye ya pula: “Omolwashike tamu tu matukile?”
Oya yamukula ya ti: “Otwe ya, tu kwate Simson, tu mu tule meti, tu mu ningile, ngaashi e tu ningile.” 11 Nena aalumentu omayuvi gatatu gaJuda oya yi kekololo lyemanya puEtam e taa ti kuSimson: “Ku shi shi kutya Aafilisti oyo aapangeli yetu? Owe tu ningi ngiini?”
Okwa yamukula: “Onde ya ningile naanaa shoka ya ningile ndje.”
12 Aalumentu oya ti: “Otwe ya, tu ku mange, tse tu ku gandje kuyo.”
Simson okwa ti: “Ganenii ndje, mwaa dhipage ndje ne yene.”
13 Oyo ya ti kuye: “Onawa, otatu ku manga ashike e tatu ku gandja miikaha yawo. Itatu ku dhipaga.” Oye mu manga noongodhi oompe noye mu kutha mo mekololo.
14 Sho ye ya kuLehi, Aafilisti oye mu matukile taye mu igidha. Ohaluka oonkondo dhOmuwa odhe ya muye, e ta tokola oongodhi dha li dhe mu manga komaako nokiikaha dha li dha fa oondali dha pya komulilo. 15 Nena okwa mono oluyego lwokasino opo ka sile. Okwa petama e te lu toola po e ta dhipaga nalwo aalumentu eyuvi limwe. 16 Simson nokwi imbi eimbilo tali ti:
“Aalumentu eyuvi limwe onde ya dhipaga noluyego lwokasino;
onoluyego lwokasino onde ya ndumbike mondumba.”
17 Konima yaambika okwe ekelehi oluyego lwokasino. Ehala mpoka pwa ningilwa mbika, olya lukwa Ramat Lehi.
18 Simson sho a li e endjwa mo kenota, okwi ithana Omuwa e ta ti: “Ongoye wa pe ndje esindano ndika ekumithi, ihe ngashingeyi oto etha, ndi se kenota ngaye ndi kwatwe kaapagani mbano Aafilisti.” 19 Nena Kalunga okwe egulula olumbogo mevi puLehi, nomeya oga fuluka mo. Simson okwe ga nu e ta talalelwa noku uvite nawa. Oluthithiya nduka olwa lukwa Hakkore; olu li sigo onena puLehi.
20 Simson okwa wilike Israel omimvo omilongo mbali, manga Aafilisti ya li taa pangele evi.
1 Some time later Samson went to visit his wife during the wheat harvest and took her a young goat. He told her father, “I want to go to my wife's room.”
But he wouldn't let him go in. 2 He told Samson, “I really thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your friend. But her younger sister is prettier, anyway. You can have her, instead.”
3 Samson said, “This time I'm not going to be responsible for what I do to the Philistines!” 4 So he went and caught three hundred foxes. Two at a time, he tied their tails together and put torches in the knots. 5 Then he set fire to the torches and turned the foxes loose in the Philistine wheat fields. In this way he burned up not only the wheat that had been harvested but also the wheat that was still in the fields. The olive orchards were also burned. 6 When the Philistines asked who had done this, they learned that Samson had done it because his father-in-law, a man from Timnah, had given Samson's wife to a friend of Samson's. So the Philistines went and burned the woman to death and burned down her father's house.
7 Samson told them, “So this is how you act! I swear that I won't stop until I pay you back!” 8 He attacked them fiercely and killed many of them. Then he went and stayed in the cave in the cliff at Etam.
Samson Defeats the Philistines
9 The Philistines came and camped in Judah, and attacked the town of Lehi. 10 The men of Judah asked them, “Why are you attacking us?”
They answered, “We came to take Samson prisoner and to treat him as he treated us.” 11 So these three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the cliff at Etam and said to Samson, “Don't you know that the Philistines are our rulers? What have you done to us?”
He answered, “I did to them just what they did to me.”
12 They told him, “We have come here to tie you up, so we can hand you over to them.”
Samson said, “Give me your word that you won't kill me yourselves.”
13 “All right,” they said, “we are only going to tie you up and hand you over to them. We won't kill you.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him back from the cliff.
14 When he got to Lehi, the Philistines came running toward him, shouting at him. Suddenly the power of the Lord made him strong, and he broke the ropes around his arms and hands as if they were burnt thread. 15 Then he found a jawbone of a donkey that had recently died. He reached down and picked it up, and killed a thousand men with it. 16 So Samson sang,
“With the jawbone of a donkey I killed a thousand men;
With the jawbone of a donkey I piled them up in piles.”
17 After that, he threw the jawbone away. The place where this happened was named Ramath Lehi.
18 Then Samson became very thirsty, so he called to the Lord and said, “You gave me this great victory; am I now going to die of thirst and be captured by these heathen Philistines?” 19 Then God opened a hollow place in the ground there at Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank it and began to feel much better. So the spring was named Hakkore; it is still there at Lehi.
20 Samson led Israel for twenty years while the Philistines ruled the land.
